Which strategy are you using when it comes to your email marketing list? That is the subject of the research that has been conducted in the first week of January by the American Ascend. Hot of the press and soon this will be matter to compare with the Belgian email barometer.
The investigation has been executed via a short survey by 50.000 professional workers in the world of e-marketing. This is a well-balanced mix of large and small enterprises with an emphasis to the world of B2B. Remarkably enough the first goal of all requested professionals is not increasing the email list.
Quality first
70 percent thinks the improvement of the quality of the list is more important. E-marketers in the world are luckily realising that the marketing battle is not won by the biggest list, but by the most qualitative one. Having an email address – even via an opt-in – is not a guarantee that sending an email message delivers results. On the contrary, it can even be very contra productive. We only have to envision the ghost of the addressed that massively move your message to the spam box. Considering whether new addresses belong in the email list is the message.
Then the conversion
The three next goals are actually connected to the first goal and also connected together. Of course we would like as much conversion as possible from our email marketing. Conversion can only exist if email really gets read (39%) and when they click through (38%). That means that we also have to spend attention to the email message that we are sending to the email list that we have built with care. The times of sending emails in a bulk is over. Certainly when 56 percent of the requested like to attain financially better results. On the fifth place, we see the concern to increase the list with new email addresses. Some years back research of MarketingSherpa has shown the opposite. How a world can change. The same examination has proven that half of the lists keep growing.
Prevent wear and tear
The graphic also shows a new trend. Nine percent indicates their goal to counteract the wear and tear of the mailing lists, which is also a growing concern. If you have to keep an eye on your own marketing lists, then you will notice too. Lists, that are served with relevant content and therefore praised by the contacts, cave in little by little. Each sending contains some, sometimes just one unsubscription. And in the coarse of time, despite all efforts, your list will shrink. The reason for unsubscriptions can be various and often independently of your efforts. When you have a local business, then a relocation of home or work can be reason enough to unsubscribe. Something to develop a strategy for as well.
Develop a strategy
If you don’t know the direction yet, then you don’t know when you will arrive. An old witticism that learns us that we might want to improve for the sake of quality of our e-marketing list, but don’t have puzzled out a conscious strategy to do so. That seemed to be the case for almost half (49%) of the requested. So, this is what should be dealt with. How are we adapting to the neglect of the periodic hygiene of the list? How are we evaluating the new incoming email address and give it a score if necessary? How are we keeping an eye on the segmentation of our list? How often the reason to segment should be evaluated? These are only a few points for which you should write out a policy. Otherwise the first goal will only remain a dream.
